Morning coffee

[RICH MUISE]

Yep, but in our case, we are totally rebuilding the house, so when something like that happens, it's just an "oh well".... it had to be done eventually anyways. In my younger days, I'd be renting a trencher and doing it myself, so I guess there are occational pluses with getting too old to do that kinda stuff within a reasonable time frame. The annoying part is after the plumber is done, I'll have some more projects that will need priority attention...fixing a big hole or two in our new kitchen floor.

[hiball3985]

I know all about a total rebuild, mine was built originally in 1924 and I almost have it up to 1950 standards now  I'm too old to do any more then just keep it afloat now  The last major project was the garage roof a new door and paint, when the house roof need doing again I farmed it out..

[Zapato]

Did the total rebuild of old home myself, should have torn it down and built from scratch. Spent better part of 25 years doing it at our last house. New nightmare everytime a wall was opened up, much easier to start fresh and then know everything is right and safe right off the bat. House was ''supposedly'' rewired a couple years before we bought it. How it was bought off must have been a buddy deal no honest inspector would have allowed half the stuff I found over the years. And plumbing lines that would freeze and split of course day before holiday house guests show up. Nothing but fun.

So 8 years ago we bought a 3 year old house that my wife proclaimed as ''PERFECT''. Now am aware that perfect means different things to the female of the species than to the male. Since then we've added 300+ sq ft to the house so that the master is truly a master. Of course outside paint color wasn't as perfect so it got painted right away along with almost every room prior to move in day.  Countless projects one after the other hopefully am thinking we will soon be close to perfect.

Think we're on  the home stretch, finish enclosing the pellet stove chimney so it looks like a brick chimney, replace front door, install around 400-500 sq ft of real hardwood floor and am promised a break after that. Master bath can wait for now. And if she can find just the right color combinations the house can get painted again. This time though I'm hiring it out.

Zap-

[petew]

Had a pellet stove when we lived in CT and loved it , great heat and much less work than burning wood in it's traditional form.

[RICH MUISE]

Our house was built in 1926, two years before building codes were adopted in Amarillo. LOL..they probably used our house as an example of why building codes were needed. I live in an area of Amarillo called San Jacinto, which is one of the oldest in town, about 3 miles west of downtown and the railroad yards. I hear different things, but I'm guessing San Jacinto started as a housing area for the railroad workers, probably expanded greatly when the Mother Road ran right thru it. I'm just 2 blocks off the old rt 66 tourist area..albeit not too much rt 66 stuff in Amarillo. Anyways, my wife and her sister grew up in San Jacinto back in the days when it was the place to live in Amarillo.
Connie has often pointed out things to me like "this use to be the busiest burger joint in town. When I was 16, Sis and I car hopped there for a summer", or an old theater where bands use to come in on weekends and her sister was a go-go dancer! That sure put a different vision in my head than the one I knew her as.
As I've mentioned before, San Jacinto got pretty run down, lots of boarded up houses, rentals, etc., but in the past few years we're starting to see houses here and there rebuilt and looking really nice, and the house was given to us, so what the heck. I've had the big houses and the upper neighborhoods where keeping up with the Joneses was the way of life, I don't need it anymore.

[hiball3985]

I don't live in a keep up with the Jones neighborhood and have never had a desire to do so. Prior to rebuilding mine I lived in rentals and had absolutely no knowledge of carpentry, electrical or plumbing, it was all learn as I went. My first project was adding a new 300 sq ft bed room, had to remove a huge olive tree first then hand dug for the foundation. Did all of the rebuild with just spare time between my full time job, the bedroom took me three years to complete  , only positive was the building inspector said it was the best dry wall work he had ever seen, I guess I went over board treating like panels on a car.. My big problems came every time working on the old sections that were build with real 2 x 4's on 24" centers. All the floor joist and framing on the old section are redwood and are as good as the day it was built.
If I knew then what I know now I would have never bought it, I basically bought it just for the 200 x 100 lot which I needed for the 13 cars I owned at that time. The drive way goes from the front street to the rear street so it's 200 ft long and the wife won't buy me a street sweeper 

[Frankenstein57]

In 98, 99, we were planning a major remodel of our 1860s farmhouse,  we would be investing six figures and lots of hours of work. After digging into the walls, and seeing the balloon construction,  I decided we should build a new house, as my yard is 3 acres.  Best call I ever made, we found a builder to customize a plan we liked, frame it up, paid him, and we took it from there. It took 2 years of constant work, but the end result was a modern well built home. I still have my shop in an 1860s barn. Mark

[RICH MUISE]

Well, after remodeling every square inch of an early 60's 4400 sq ft house, I swore I'd never do it again...and here I am.
BTW, I'm waiting for the wind to die down and for it to warm up a little so I can go out and get some painting done before it gets too hot!...that time of the year again....or, I'm just getting wimpy.

[hiball3985]

I guess I'm getting wimpy too, I have a small work window on the house  between 65-75 or just find it as another excuse Over the years I have seen many of the older homes in the neighborhood remodeled and upgraded and now as soon as they hit the market they are bought up by foreign investors who tear them down and build new two story mansions . They finally passes an ordinance against it but in the last month I have seen three new ones under construction so I don't know how they are getting around it. So my other excuse is why bother it will just be torn down by the next owner.

[RICH MUISE]

LOL...I know that's one thing I don't have to worry about...no mansions are going to be going up in my neighborhood.
On a different note, I'm getting all my ducks lined up for projects on my '57. Hopefully after we return from Phoenix in mid October, I'll get to start on it. I should have my EFI harness on the way here by the end of the week, I've already received my Vintage Air evaporator unit, I picked up some 18 gauge to make my battery box (relocating to the driver's side), and this morning I dropped off a blueprint to a local NC machine shop to have my dash panel custom machined. I should have that in a week or so, am very excited to finally get that done. He said "probably at least a couple hundred", so hopefully no more than 3 on that...pretty much what I was hoping for.
I've also got a new mass air flow housing and sensor on the way so I can rework my air intake.
If I can get all that stuff done this winter, and get my glass installed so I can finish the interior, the light at the end of the tunnel will be a whole lot bigger.

[Ford Blue blood]

and it wil not be an oncoming train!

[RICH MUISE]

Nope, just a semi with triple boxes.

[Frankenstein57]

Up by my mom's house,  north of Green Bay, 5 inches of rain last night. Woke to a lake surrounding the house and garage,  my sisters house has 5 to 6 feet of water in the basement.  I have a pump rigged up, but no where to pump it to.so much for going home early. ?......

[RICH MUISE]

That's alot of water! Our friends in California could use 2 or 3 of those storms...of course we'd then be reading about the mudslides.

[Zapato]

Wow! All that rain and getting beat by the Seahawks on the same day. that is definitely more than anyone should have to put up with on one day.

Zap-